2 Corinthians 8:12 · World English Bible
2 Corinthians 8:12 Meaning For If the Readiness Is There
For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what you have, not according to what you don’t have.
What does 2 Corinthians 8:12 mean?
Himma: The heart's strong resolve Himma is the wish that leans a person toward an act before anything is done. Someone with little to give often feels that willingness counts for nothing next to the size of the need.
From the Sufism reading below.
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Himma: The heart's strong resolve Himma is the wish that leans a person toward an act before anything is done. Someone with little to give often feels that willingness counts for nothing next to the size of the need. That leaning is the main part of the act, and it holds even when the hands come up nearly empty.
Niyya: Intention Niyya is the aim a person acts from, and a saying of the Prophet places the worth of a deed on it. Someone who wanted to give far more than they could still gets credit for the whole of what they meant. The aim sets the size of the act, so a small amount given with the whole heart counts as complete.
Ikhlāṣ: Sincerity Ikhlāṣ means nothing is mixed into the motive, no eye on how the act will look. Ibn Ata Allah said that deeds are lifeless bodies and sincerity is the soul in them. Once the wish to be seen drops out, what is left is the plain wish for someone else to be all right.
Īthār: Putting another person ahead of yourself Īthār is preferring someone else's need over your own while you are short yourself, and the Quran praises people who do it. Anyone with plenty can give without feeling it, while a person with little feels every bit of what leaves their hands. That cost makes a small gift heavy, so the one with least often gives the most measured against what they had.
God does not burden a soul beyond what it can carry: the demand fits the strength Sufis come back to this line of the Quran whenever a shortfall starts to feel like guilt. Someone short on money, time, or health can treat that shortage as a personal failing. The demand is always cut to the size of the strength, so what a person lacks never counts against them.
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Live 2 Corinthians 8:12 today
- Do the small thing you have been postponing because it felt too small to matter. The two line reply, the ten dollars, the one phone call. Send it as it is.
- When a friend is struggling and you cannot fix any of it, say plainly that you wish you could do more and then offer the little you can. The wish is not a consolation prize, it is most of the gift.
- On a day when you are stretched thin and someone needs you, give the five minutes you honestly have instead of the hour you do not. Five real minutes beats an hour you cancel.
Where am I holding back a small offering because it seems too small to count?
The same truth in other traditions
Judaism · Talmud
The sages said the handful of meal brought by a poor man is as precious before God as the lavish offering of the rich, since it is weighed against what he had.
Bhagavad Gita
Krishna says that a leaf, a flower, a fruit, even water, offered with real devotion, is received fully. What is offered matters less than the heart it comes from.
Stoicism · Seneca
The worth of a kindness lies in the spirit of the giver, not the size of the thing given, and a willing intention makes a small gift complete.
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